New Publication: African Modernism and Its Afterlives

African Modernism and Its Afterlives : The legacy of colonial and postcolonial African architecture.

Edited by Paul Wenzel Geissler, Nina Berre, and long time friend of this blog Johan Lagae

This edited collection of essays and image-driven pieces by anthropologists, archaeologists, architects, and historians examines the legacies of African architecture from around the time of independence through examples from different countries. Drawing on ethnography, archival research, and careful observation of buildings, remains, and people, the case studies seek to connect the colonial and postcolonial origins of modernist architecture, the historical processes they underwent, and their present use and habitation, adaptation, and decay. 

Deriving from a workshop in connection with the 2015 exhibition “Forms of Freedom” at the National Museum in Oslo and the Venice Biennale, the volume combines recent developments in architectural history, the anthropology of modernism and of material culture, and contemporary archaeology to move beyond the admiration or preservation of prized architectural “heritage” and to complicate the contemplation—or critique—of “ruins” and “ruination.”

Full details and purchase here: https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/distributed/A/bo123638300.html